Movie Review - Saint Maud

Premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, it was released in the United Kingdom in October 2020. It got a limited run in the United States in January. It was nominated for two BAFTA Awards, including Outstanding British Film of the Year. It's a very creepy film that's literally about a person who is creepily obsessing over another. The mood or the tone seems like this might be a horror flick. There's even some suggestion of supernatural elements, which makes this film feel like it might be in the vein of A24 flicks like The Witch (2016) and Hereditary (2018). Yet, this film turns out to be more in line with something like Single White Female (1992) or Horse Girl (2020). It's more about putting us in the shoes or in the head of a person, particularly a young woman who is suffering from a mental illness. However, writer-director Rose Glass balances things to make you question if she has a mental illness or not.

Morfydd Clark (Crawl and Love & Friendship) stars as Maud, which probably isn't her real name. She's a private nurse who lives in the home of a wealthy woman who needs constant care. Through flashbacks, we learn that she used to work at a hospital, but she left after a traumatic incident, the death of a patient. What's not sure is if she were fired or if she left of her own accord.

A lot of the film is about the religious faith of the protagonist. It shows how far a person can go in service of their faith and how destructive that is. It also shows that such faith or such religious devotion can be akin to a delusion. It's not like The Exorcist (1973) or The Conjuring (2013) where faith or religious devotion is the solution or the ultimate answer. This film feels like it's pushing this idea that faith is a mental disorder that will lead to ruin, which isn't a new concept but quite a punch here.

Jennifer Ehle (A Quiet Passion and Little Men) co-stars as Amanda Köhl, a celebrity who is a former dancer and choreographer who's now 49. Yet, she's suffering from a debilitating disease that confines her to a wheelchair. Her illness requires that she gets shots and have to take daily pills. She needs palliative care and constant help. She's also an author who realizes that she's dying. She still hires a live-in nurse to be there for her. That's how she meets Maud. Amanda is a lesbian or has same-sex attraction, which is the first poke at Maud's religious devotion.

It's not that Maud is driven by homophobia, but that's a subtle element. We hear Maud's voice-over narration. It makes this film feel more interior and more in her head, as any good psychological thriller should accomplish. It's what something like the remake, Rebecca (2020) should have been.

Rated R for disturbing and violent content, sexuality and language.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 24 mins.

Available on Hulu.